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Agenda on judges draws fire

By Richard BrennanOttawa Bureau

Thu., Feb. 15, 2007

OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper has bluntly acknowledged that he wants to appoint judges who will promote his law-and-order agenda, prompting accusations that he is threatening the independence of the judiciary.

The surprising political candour from the Prime Minister came yesterday amid a growing furor over the way the Conservative government plans to pick judges.

"We want to make sure we are bringing forward laws to make sure that we crack down on crime, that we make our streets and communities safer," Harper said during question period. "We want to make sure our selection of judges is in correspondence with those objectives."

Deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff told MPs that Harper's response confirms "our worst suspicions" that the government has changed the way judges are evaluated.

"The cat's out of the bag," said Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe.

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He accused Harper of borrowing U.S. President George W. Bush's approach to legal rights in the same way he's adopting the "Republican model" on the environment.

Ed Ratushny, a University of Ottawa law professor, was startled by Harper's assertions, saying they were "very inappropriate and unfortunate for a prime minister to make."

"It just reflects profound a misunderstanding of the Canadian judiciary... it conveys a message that judges can be selected who will have a predetermined conclusion about how they will decide and will promote the government's agenda rather than deciding cases impartially and fairly," he said.

Critics have been pounding away at the government after accusations that the Conservatives have been stacking judicial advisory committees in what critics say is an attempt to impose the government's right-wing views on the judiciary.

The committees are responsible for assessing the qualifications of applicants for appointments to the bench. There is at least one committee in each province and territory; Ontario has three regionally based committees.

The federal government first came under fire over the committees last year when it added police representatives to them. Ottawa selects three of the eight committee members directly; the rest are nominated by the province, the provincial judiciary, the provincial law society, the police and the Canadian Bar Association.

The latest furor erupted over newspaper reports that at least half of the 33 people chosen by the federal government as its direct representatives on the committees are Conservative partisans.

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"This (Harper's statement) seems to me to lead us directly to where he wants to go, that is a judicial system under the control of this government and that's just un-Canadian and it's wrong," Ignatieff said later.

"This is a very explicit attempt to make sure the Canadian judicial system obediently follows the law-and-order strategy of this government, and that's not how our system of government works.

``The government puts forward criminal justice measures and the justices interpret them and you keep separation between the two.

"That's how we keep our freedom," he told reporters.

Harper made it clear that the police are on the judicial committees to have a direct say in picking judges who will reflect the law-and-order agenda.

"The former minister of justice (Vic Toews) announced important changes last year that would ensure that when we select judges that the police have input into the selection of judges in this country," he said in the House of Commons.

Since they took power, the Tories have introduced nearly a dozen criminal-law initiatives, many designed to lengthen jail sentences.

Few of the bills have made much headway in the minority Parliament but Harper has refused to back off.

On the judicial front, his only Supreme Court appointee – the moderately right-of-centre Marshall Rothstein – won praise from all sides.

NDP Leader Jack Layton said Harper's position "completely belies what he told Canadians in the election, which is that we would have a fair and open process for the selection of judges, that partisanship shouldn't be a part of it."

"The Canadian judiciary has been respected around the world because it has been largely a non-partisan approach that has been taken and urged and it is very distressing to hear Mr. Harper's comments today," Layton told reporters.

Legal and constitutional experts told the Star yesterday that they found Harper's comment regarding the selection of judges to be troubling.

"This is very, very alarming," said Lorraine Weinrib, a constitutional lawyer and professor at the University of Toronto.

"Nobody is against law and order and nobody is against the proper administration of justice ... but this government has raised proposals that may very well run contrary to the Charter," Weinrib said.

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